Greetings from Belhaven, NC!

Note: this is actually a blog from yesterday, but I wanted to go ahead and post it since I wrote it.
Greetings from Belhaven, NC!
We woke up at 7 am to head out from Swanquarter and after a little time spent eating breakfast and cleaning up Soule United Methodist Church, we headed out into the rain for our 35-mile ride. We stopped by a local gas in Swanquarter station to check out a sign that had been painted for us, which was a big deal because only people who are “somebody” get on his sign. After about an hour or so of rain, the weather cleared up and the ride was great. After a few photos with the red and white sign that read “bikers for building,” we headed out to finish our ride. We did hit one hill today – well, actually it was a bridge – but other than that, the ride was nice and flat.
The first groups arrived at First Christian Church in Belhaven around 12 o’clock and immediately were greeted with incredible hospitality. Everyone in the town was so happy to see us, and they even took us to shower in their homes. Some of the riders were even treated to a nice, relaxing hot tub, while others drank tea from fine china in their riding clothes while waiting for their turn to shower. Of course, there were plenty of barbecue sandwiches, apples, Oreos, and chips readily available for our consumption. Several of the riders also checked out FlyBoys, a burger joint in town that served specialty sandwiches and milkshakes, including the steak burger and the pizza burger. Others chose to check out the town museum, which was less of a museum and more of a collection of things from an old lady’s attic, including 6,000 buttons, fleas dressed as bride and groom, and even a tumor in a jar. Needless to say, it was definitely worth the trip. We also had the chance to chat with locals in the town during the afternoon, including the owners of a Tropical Macaw named Albert Einstein, whose favorite word seemed to be “Aflac.”
For dinner, the town was kind enough to throw us an amazing outdoor feast, organized by the pastors of First Christian Church and Trinity United Methodist, Pastor Steve and Pastor Sam, and members of their congregation. The food was absolutely amazing and included such local delicacies as fried chicken, pineapple-cheese casserole, broccoli casserole, and other amazing southern delights. The dessert table was just as promising, filled with brownies, ice cream, cookies, cherry cupcakes, and essentially everything we could want. The town also collected donations for Bike & Build at the dinner. One lady at the dinner made us a beautiful quilt of green and white to furnish a home or use to collect donations for Bike & Build. After dinner, we had the chance to talk to all of the town’s residents, who were all amazing and an absolute joy to talk to. They even gave away some bicycles and other prizes for the kids of Belhaven. After dinner, they made a bonfire for us, where we chatted for a bit before we headed back to clean all of the muck off of our bikes and head to bed. We had no idea what we did to deserve such kindness, but we were sure that we didn’t want to leave. Maybe we can just ride in a circle tomorrow…